Israel stocks snap 5-day win streak; Shufersal up

RobertDaniel

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - Israeli stocks traded in a volatile session and snapped a five-day winning streak on Wednesday, in the first chance Israeli traders had to react to the news that Barack Obama was elected president of the U.S.

Late in the trading day, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's benchmark TA-25 Index was off 0.74% at 783.12 and the TA-100 was down 0.95% at 698.17. The TA-25 earlier traded up as much as 1.1% and down as much as 1.3%.

The Tel-Tech 15 Index of top technology issues fell 0.84% to 167.01.

The most-active issue was Israel Chemicals, off 0.8%.

Agrichemicals producer Makhteshim-Agan slumped more than 10%.

Third-quarter adjusted earnings more than doubled to $50.6 million as sales climbed 29% to $640.1 million.

Thinner-than-expected profit margins offset the higher revenue, Merrill Lynch analyst Haim Israel said in a report. The revenue line was lifted mainly by strong Latin America sales "while margins continue to be under pressure, moving in the opposite direction to industry trends," he wrote.

Excellence Nessuah said the results beat its expectations.

Lower oil prices will thicken the gross margin toward the end of 2008 and in first-half 2009, the firm said in a note.

At the same time, it expects a "weak" fourth quarter. That's because of key risks, including the potential that a weak global economy could reduce demand, especially in Latin America, and make collecting receivables more difficult. The brokerage did say that to offset that latter risk, M-A is insuring its receivables and is using barter for about a third of its sales in Brazil.

The company reported third-quarter earnings rose 38% on 2.2% higher revenue, as it boosted its subscriber rolls by 3.1% to 2.88 million. Average revenue per minute of use declined, however, due to competitive pressures and regulatory requirements, Partner said.

Teva Pharmaceutical
TEVA, +1.09%
fell 0.3%. The company reports third-quarter net income on Thursday. A survey of analysts by FactSet Research produced consensus estimates of 71 cents of profit on $2.9 billion of revenue.

Leading the gainers in the TA-25 was turbine producer Ormat Industries, up 3.8%. The company's Ormat Technologies unit,
ORA, +0.91%
a producer of geothermal power plants, is set to report third-quarter earnings after Wall Street closes for business on Wednesday. FactSet's analyst survey is looking for 35 cents of profit on $89.3 million of revenue.

In the TA-100, supermarket chain Shufersal slipped 2.2%. The company reported that third-quarter net income more than doubled on 13% higher revenue.

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